Pa. priest convicted of abusing orphans in Honduras

Published 9:00 am Wednesday, September 23, 2015

A jury in Pennsylvania returned guilty verdicts on five counts in a federal indictment against a priest accused of sexually abusing three orphans while doing mission work in Honduras.

The Rev. Joseph Maurizio Jr. showed no emotion in court as the jury’s first “guilty” verdict was read. Across the courtroom, his family and several church parishioners gasped, embraced and cried.

The verdict came after more than 12 hours of deliberations spanning two days.

Attorneys left the courtroom with no comment, although U.S. Attorney David Hickton released a statement from his Western District Office in Pittsburgh, saying the conviction “affirms the courage of these victims, the tenacity of the investigators and the resolve of our prosecutors to ensure justice.”

Maurizio’s defense attorney, Steven Passarello, had argued that Maurizio worked for years as a priest and missionary with an unblemished reputation until a power struggle between the Honduran ProNiño charity and current operators erupted in 2009.

A longtime ProNiño board president, Elizabeth Williams, disputed Maurizio’s account after the trial ended. Williams spent most of the trial in court and said the verdict vindicated Maurizio’s young victims, both those who testified and others unwilling to step forward.

“It’s a sad day when children are molested by people they should be able to trust,” she said.

But it’s also a “proud day,” she said, crediting the U.S. government for acting to defend children abused in another country.

Maurizio had been under investigation by various agencies since 2009.

Earlier this week, attorneys for the U.S. government and Maurizio spent nearly seven hours presenting closing arguments in the case, with each side painting drastically different pictures of the 70-year-old priest, who faces eight federal charges related to mission work he did in Honduras beginning in 2009.

U.S. Assistant Attorney Stephanie Haines pointed to photos and testimony to portray Maurizio as a power-wielding “money man” who lured young boys with candy and pocket change.

She referred to testimony by two alleged victims recalling a trip to unload supplies where Maurizio groped one boy while behind the wheel of a pickup truck.

And she cited testimony alleging Maurizio was spotted engaging in sex acts with boys in a church chapel, among other locations.

“This case is about horrible things this man did … for nearly a decade,” she said.

Passarello described the case against Maurizio as full of embellished allegations and little more. He described the longtime priest as “one of the good ones.”

Passarello pointed to one alleged assault victim’s testimony in court, noting the now-adult male testified last week that he was not abused in any way by Maurizio, despite giving a different story to U.S. investigators months earlier.

The boy testified he was “tricked” into the Homeland Security interview, something Haines called a “common” cover story to hide the shame of abuse.

Passarello, meanwhile, questioned the credibility of other alleged victims and witnesses, saying important details varied – such as the year they occurred – and questioned how Maurizio and the boys could have carried on somewhat detailed conversations about “trust” when neither spoke the other’s language.

Maurizio was also accused of possessing child porn – a charge stemming from two images found in a raid of the Our Lady Queen of Angels rectory in 2014.

Haines said the pictures were taken by a camera with the same model Maurizio used in Honduras – and showed preteen boys naked on a bed, exposing their genitals in an unnatural pose.

Passarello said the pictures were among “millions” of inoffensive photos seized as evidence “and you’d find worse than that in National Geographic.”

He argued that the government failed to show Maurizio took or ever possessed the photos, saying they were stored on a colleague’s computer account in the rectory.

Maurizio remains suspended from his duties as a Roman Catholic Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown priest.

The Johnstown (Pa.) Tribune-Democrat contributed to this story.